ALAMOGORDO – The survivor of a bear attack pleaded her case for a change in the policy requiring that any wild animal that has attacked a human must be automatically euthanized.

Still healing from her wounds of the bear attack, Karen Williams stated her case for showing more compassion to all bears in New Mexico.

She was seen with bandages on her right arm and stitches over her right eye. She told the Legislature’s Water and Natural Resources Committee on Thursday she wants the state to do case study reviews on whether wild animals should be euthanized and patients should have their own choice on rabies vaccinations.

“I think the person who was attacked should have a choice,” she said during her plea to the committee. “I don’t think any medical doctor has the right to take over a patient’s rights and not tell a patient what is going on."

Williams explained the differentiation between predatory behavior and defensive behavior in bears with a PowerPoint presentation to the committee in which Williams suggested there should be a rabies response team to determine the fate of wildlife based on where the attack happened and the potential the wild animal has for rabies.

“I’m here because I got attacked by a bear on June 18,” she said. “I came running up this little incline with a water source and looked to my right and saw a little bear charging me from 15-feet.”

Williams, 53, was attacked on June 18 while running a marathon in the Valles Caldera National Preserve west of Los Alamos when she came to a small hill near mile marker 23.5 when she startled a mother bear’s cub. The cub ran up a tree and Williams was faced with fending off the mother bear. The bear attacked her upper body. She finally freed herself of the bear when she played dead, that’s when the mother bear went looking for her cub.

She was airlifted to an Albuquerque hospital where she spent 14 hours in surgery. She was treated for a fractured eye socket, scratches and bites on both her arms and neck.

Williams sees specialists for various reasons she said.

The bear was eventually caught, euthanized and tested for rabies, but the test came back negative.

State Epidemiologist Dr. Michael Landen argued that the state’s policy is to protect the public from rabies and vaccines should be given only when the offending animal cannot be captured. An animal must be euthanized to test the brain for the virus.

“Any wild animal that bites a human should be considered potentially rabid until proven otherwise,” Landen said.

The last human case of rabies in New Mexico was detected in 1956.

Landen said 18 bears have been euthanized in New Mexico since 2000 for rabies testing. He said the New Mexico Department of Health does not have any plans to change the rule.

“This requirement to euthanize a wild animal is in regulation, not statute," he said. "And the Department of Health could consider changing this. At this time, we have no plans to change it.”

Department of Game and Fish Director Alexandra Sandoval said the agency has recently developed a rapid response team she calls the "wildlife human attack response team."